LOCAL He aims two talents toward one goal While...

February 10, 2006

LOCALHe aims two talents toward one goal While Tim Zerbel filled out his résumé, his mind suddenly connected a couple of dots in his life. -He had been an award-winning carver and sculptor. -And he had served as an Army medic in the former Yugoslavia and Haiti. Could two such labors of love be combined into one calling? "And right there while sitting on my couch 1 1/2 years ago, it hit me on what I should do with my life," the 33-year-old South Bend native says. Tim decided he could combine those two talents and become an orthopedic surgeon, specializing in making prostheses for children in war-torn countries. A lofty goal. Especially when Tim had graduated seventh from the bottom in his Lakeshore High School class several years earlier. B1Avery confirmed as new EMA head Former Plymouth Police Chief Clyde Avery has been confirmed as the new director of the Marshall County Emergency Management Agency. Marshall County Commissioners approved the recommendation from the EMA board during the commissioners' regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday. Avery, with a 20-year law enforcement background, won in a 14-candidate pool, after EMA officials narrowed the finalists to three. Avery, a married father of three children, served as Plymouth police chief in 2002. He retired from the force in the summer of 2003, and worked with the Plymouth Water Department. B1Casey's General Store robbed Police say a man attempted to ride away on a bicycle after robbing a local convenience store Wednesday evening. But he didn't pedal far enough. According to the Plymouth Police Department, the 22-year-old Plymouth man was arrested at his house in the 100 block of South Liberty Street less than one hour after the robbery at Casey's General Store, 885 E. Jefferson St., at 8:04 p.m. B2Free bus rides lure college students College students will take anything if it's free -- including public transportation. It's a bankable trend Transpo picked up on when it signed free ridership agreements with the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary's College in August, deals that have since contributed to a spike in student riders. In 2005, student ridership -- either from the Notre Dame/Saint Mary's agreements or student pass usage -- accounted for 5 percent of Transpo's total ridership, said Mary McLain, Transpo general manager. That's more than double the figure in 2004, when students accounted for 2 percent of Transpo's total ridership. B3NATION/WORLDSuicide bomber leaves 27 dead in Pakistan town A suicide bomber struck Thursday in Hangu, Pakistan, on the holiest festival for Shiite Muslims, triggering a riot that left a provincial town in flames and at least 27 people dead and more than 50 wounded. A4